Fear
by PerfectlyImperfect44
Summary: Reid and JJ are lost in the woods. Animals, injuries, and the possibility of a trigger happy unsub being nearby, will they be able to make it out?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**Fun fact! I wrote this about three times. Microsoft Word kept crashing before I could save. Ugh. Well, I don't plan for this to be a fabulously long story, but who knows. Another thing: Updates won't be as frequent. I'm starting school next week, so that'll keep me pretty busy. Until Tuesday, at 8:10am, I'm all yours . **

**By the way, 100m is about 328 feet. **

* * *

The team were in Nebraska. Investigating a serial killer who preys on women and men going out for a walk late at night. He had killed five people in the past week and a half. He was devolving, quickly. With a little help from some of the locals, they were able to find a common name. Chad Michaels. He fit the profile exactly. Mid to late forties, recently suffered a loss, and according to his sister, he often went out for late night strolls. They were able to come up with an address. Inconveniently, it was a cabin in the Nebraska National Forest. Reid, JJ, Hotch, and Morgan went to check it out. At this point in the investigation, they had no real evidence against him. They were hoping to find some at his current place of residence. But of course, he wasn't home. They rarely ever were.

"Reid, JJ. I want you to search the surrounding forest. Morgan and I will stay here and see if we can find anything." Hotch ordered.

JJ and Reid nodded in agreement.

"Don't split up this time." Morgan warned. "We're not having a repeat of what happened in Georgia."

"That was like four years ago. Are you ever going to let that go?" Reid asked, with desperation in his voice.

Morgan shook his head. "You almost died on us kid. Just make sure to stay together, and watch out for the bears."

"Bears?" Reid squeaked.

"Don't worry. JJ will protect you." Morgan teased.

Reid glared.

"C'mon. Let's go. I want to leave before it gets dark." JJ urged.

"If you see him, do not go after him. Call for backup." Hotch warned. "Don't go to far out. 100m, that's all." Hotch said. "Be careful."

* * *

Reid and JJ exited the cabin, and prepared to venture out into the surrounding forest. With night quickly arriving, they had to work fast.

"The Nebraska National Forest is 141,864 acres. It's divided into two districts. The Bessey Ranger District, and The Pine Ridge Ranger District. The Bessy Ranger District was established in 1902 by Charles. E. Bessey, as an experiment to see if forests could be created in treeless areas of the Great Plains. It's 20,000 acres, and it's currently the largest man-made forest in the United States. The Pine Ridge District 52,000 acres. It contains about 32.1% of the forests total area." Reid babbled.

JJ sighed. She loved the kid, but sometimes he really needed to stop talking.

As is he could read her mind, Reid sighed as well.

"I'll stop talking now." He decided.

"I hate the woods." JJ mumbled.

"Why?" Reid asked curiously.

"Why are you scared of the dark?" JJ challenged.

"Inherent absence of the light." Reid stated. "Now, why are you afraid of the woods?"

"Promise you won't laugh at me?" JJ asked.

Reid raised his eyebrows. "I've told you countless amounts of things about me, that you could have easily laughed at. I promise."

JJ sighed. "When I was a kid, I used to go camping a lot with my parents. One time, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I had to go to the bathroom. I got out of my tent, and I just stood there for a minute or so. Letting my eyes adjust. Behind the trees, there was a man standing there, staring at my tent. I screamed, and he ran away. I've been scared of the woods ever since." She explained.

Reid thought for a moment. "Uh, JJ."

"Yeah?"

"I think we're lost."

* * *

Morgan and Hotch were in separate rooms. Hotch was in Chad's bedroom, basically tearing the place apart. Morgan was in the living room, searching in much the same manner as Hotch. They were both turning up empty. The cabin was ordinary. No personal touches, no journals, not even anything that could be used a murder weapon. They were beginning to think they got the wrong guy.

"Hey Hotch, what time is it?" Morgan asked.

"6:57pm. We said we'd be back at the station by 8:30pm." Hotch informed him.

Morgan nodded. "Since were turning up empty handed here, want to wait for Reid and JJ in the SUV?" He suggested.

"Do you have the keys?" Hotch asked.

Morgan shook his head. "I thought you had the keys?"

"JJ has the keys." Hotch said, sighing slightly.

"So, were stuff in the cabin until they get back? Morgan asked, clarifying.

Hotch nodded. "It appears that way." He agreed.

"Great." Morgan groaned. "Just great."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

**Sorry, mega short chapter. Writers block sucks. **

* * *

"Let's just go back the way we came." JJ suggested.

"What way would that be?" Reid asked, turning around for dramatic effect.

"Okay, okay. Let's not panic. It's getting dark, so we have two options. We can try to go back the way we came, and risk wandering deeper into the woods. Or we can stay here and wait until Morgan and Hotch come." JJ said.

"I'm not spending the night here." Reid stated.

_Crunch. Snap._

"What was that?" Reid whispered.

JJ shrugged. "Maybe it's Morgan and Hotch. Should we call out?"

Reid shook his head. "No. If it was them, they would be calling our names. It's either an animal, or…"

"Or what?" JJ urged.

"The unsub. Think about it. His car was here, but he wasn't. He heard us coming. He knows these woods like the back of his hand. He could have easily hid out here until we left." Reid replied.

"What do we do?" JJ whispered back.

_Snap. Crunch. _

"It's getting closer!" JJ urged. "What do you suggest we do?"

"If it's an animal, it'll likely be scared of us, and it'll leave. Our profile suggests the unsub isn't afraid to shoot his way out, so confronting him isn't an option." Reid explained.

"That's never stopped you before." JJ mumbled.

"I had backup. It was during the day. And I wasn't in the middle of the Nebraska National Forest!" Reid replied.

"Oh, so once it gets dark you're no longer a fearless Federal Agent?" JJ teased, still keeping her voice to a minimum.

"Pretty much." Reid agreed. "How do you propose we should go about this?"

"Being out here in the open isn't going to do us much good. I say we find somewhere where we can watch from all angles." JJ suggested.

"Oh, and where's that? Three hundred more meters into the forest?" Reid asked.

JJ nodded.

"Oh, great plan. Let's get ourselves lost in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night." Reid replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you have a better idea?" JJ shot back.

Reid shook his head. "Nope."

"For once in your life, you have no idea what to do?" JJ clarified.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't lay awake at night and think 'Hey! What should I do if I'm ever lost in the middle of the Nebraska National Forest with an unsub?' I apologize." Reid whispered back.

_Snap._

"So, my plan doesn't sound to bad now eh?" JJ said.

Reid shook his head. "Lets go." He agreed.

* * *

"Where are they?" Morgan asked.

Hotch shrugged. "It's not completely dark yet. They're probably still looking."

Morgan shook his head. "No. Reid hates the dark, and JJ hates the woods. They should have been back by now." He stated.

Silence filled the air.

"We should go look for them." Morgan finally suggested.

Hotch shook his head. "Morgan. You know as well as I do that getting ourselves lost isn't going to help JJ and Reid's current situation. If there even is a situation. For all we know they could be still looking." He calmly explained.

Morgan sighed. "If there not back within half an hour, I'm going to look for them." He stated.

Hotch nodded. "If they aren't back in an hour, I'll call the rest of the team as well."

"What do you want to do until then?" Morgan asked.

"We wait."

* * *

**A/N**

**Reviews make chapters longer and updates more frequent :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

**This chapter finally broke the 1000 character mark! Yay! *Throws confetti* **

* * *

By the time they had reached a suitable place, it was pitch black. They had wandered even deeper into the forest, making themselves even harder to be found.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Reid complained. "For all we know, that could have been an animal. All we did was make it harder for Morgan and Hotch to find us."

JJ sighed. "What if it was Chad?" She asked.

"What if it wasn't?" Reid argued.

"How long do you think we've been out here?" JJ asked.

"Too long. My phone died while we were on our way here, do you have yours?"

JJ pulled out her blackberry from her jean pocket, and clicked it on.

"No service." She muttered.

Reid looked around at his surroundings. "Do you think we're going to be stuck here all night?" He asked.

JJ shrugged. "If we are. We should find some shelter. It'll be easier to find our way out in the morning. Safer too. Sitting here against a pine tree isn't going to do us any good if it starts raining." She replied.

Reid nodded. "Good idea. But do we really want to risk wandering even farther in? I know I don't."

"What do you want to do?" JJ asked, frustrated.

"Nebraska has an annual average normal temperature of about 50°F. While I completely agree with you on finding shelter for the night, I don't think it's reasonable to walk even farther in. If we can find something reasonably close to our current position, great. If not, we won't freeze." Reid explained.

"So, how do you propose we go about this?" JJ asked.

"One of us can find some fairly large sticks to make a fire, and the other can start on making/finding us some shelter." He suggested.

JJ shook her head. "Nu-uh. There's no way I'm splitting up."

"Look," Reid explained. "What happened to me, wasn't your fault. And you know that. It was four years ago. I'm grown both mentally, and physically since then."

"It's not just Hankel, Spence. I don't want to be alone in a forest in the middle of the night." JJ stressed. "Besides. If we do spilt up, what happens if one of us spots Chad?"

"Since Emily 'died', I've been spending a lot of my time at the firing range. I know how to handle myself."

JJ sighed. "So, you really want to split up?"

Reid nodded.

"And there's absolutely no way I can make you change your mind?"

Reid shook his head.

"Alright." JJ agreed. "Let's do it."

"Now, do you want to gather fire wood, or do you want to find a shelter?" Reid asked.

JJ shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

"Well, it doesn't matter to me either." Reid replied.

"What one do you want to do?" JJ asked. "Fire wood or shelter?"

"I don't care."

"Just pick one." JJ said.

"No, you pick. I don't care what I do. You choose." Reid replied.

JJ sighed. "Alright. I'll find some wood for the fire, you find suitable shelter. Is that okay?"

Reid nodded. "Sure."

"Don't go to far. It's bad enough we're lost out here, I don't want either of us to be on our own." JJ warned.

"I won't go more than 20 meters out. I'll make sure so stay within earshot." He promised.

JJ nodded. "Good. Now, lets get to work."

* * *

He could hear them, but he couldn't see them. He knew they were in here with him, he just didn't know exactly where. He was armed with his gun, and a hunting knife. After living in the woods for ten years, you know better not to come into the forest unprepared. He planned to use that to his advantage. The feds were on to him, that much was clear. Why else would they make the hour and a half journey out here? Once he heard them arriving, he escaped out the back door and scrambled into the surrounding forest. He didn't expect the feds to search the forest, but he wasn't to worried. There wasn't that many of them. Only two. He could easily take them out, silently of course. Why would he risk shooting? There was always the possibility of the other feds hearing them. At this very moment, murder was the only way out. And he would not hesitate to do so.

* * *

"Prentiss and Rossi are on there way." Hotch informed Morgan.

Morgan nodded. "Good. Do you still think they're 'just searching?' They should have been back by now."

Hotch thought for a moment. "Something's wrong. Let's not jump to conclusions. Chad might not even be out here. For all we know, they could be lost." He calmly explained.

"How long until Rossi and Prentiss get here?" Morgan asked.

"An hour, an hour and a half. Depends who's driving." Hotch replied.

"Should we call Garcia? Let her know what's up?"

Hotch nodded. "Yeah. You do that. I'll keep searching."

Morgan nodded. He pulled out his phone, and dialled Garcia's number.

"You have reached the goddess of all knowing. Your wish is my command." Garcia greeted.

"Hey baby girl. I need to tell you something. Don't freak, okay? We don't even know the full story yet." Morgan said.

"Morgan, what's going on?" Garcia asked. "Is someone hurt?"

Morgan sighed. "We found Chad's cabin. When we got here, he wasn't home. JJ and Reid went out into the woods to look for him. That was two hours ago. They haven't came back yet."

"D-Do you think something happened to them?" Garcia replied.

"I don't know. They might just be lost. Prentiss and Rossi are on there way over. Once they get here, we're going to go out and look." Morgan explained.

"Do you need me to do anything? What can I do to help?" Garcia asked.

"Find out if Chad owns any other property. If he's not here, we need to know where he is. We'll call you when we know anything." Morgan said.

"You better."

"I will." Morgan promised.

"Oh, Morgan?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah?"

"Bring my babies home safe."


End file.
